Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

World Heritage Sites

lord storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of UNESCO World Heritage sites located in the UK.

baroness barran: Each of the 32 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the UK and its Overseas Territories must undertake reporting to the World Heritage Committee on a periodic basis. Additionally, each site must have and regularly update a management plan. This process is overseen by DCMS, acting on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government, as State Party to the World Heritage Convention.

World Heritage Sites

lord storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government how they protect the integrity of UNESCO World Heritage sites located in the UK.

baroness barran: UNESCO World Heritage sites in the UK are protected through heritage legislation and the respective planning regimes in each of the devolved administrations. Additionally, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and others provide grant funding to sites for projects which help to protect their integrity for the benefit of present and future generations.

World Heritage Sites

lord storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what powers and responsibilities Historic England have towards UNESCO World Heritage sites located in England.

baroness barran: Historic England provides advice to local authorities and Government regarding the historic environment in England. They also act as advisers to the UK government for World Heritage across the UK and Overseas Territories and advise site managers and others on the implementation of the Convention.

Social Media

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether social media platforms are adequately monitored for harmful and illegal content.

baroness barran: We published the Online Harms White Paper in April last year, setting out plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online.Our proposals would establish a new statutory duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. The duty of care will ensure companies have appropriate systems and processes in place to deal with harmful content on their services to keep their users safe.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

the marquess of lothian: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they last made representations to the government of Iran about the case ofNazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe; when the Prime Minister last did so directly; whether they have done so since 3 January; and in all such cases, what response they received.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: The Foreign Secretary raised his concerns about dual national detentions with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif on 6 January. The Prime Minister raised his concerns with Iranian President Rouhani on 9 January. The Minister for the Middle East and North Africa called for their release in his call with Deputy Foreign Minister Araghchi on 12 January. We remain extremely concerned about the welfare of all British-Iranian dual nationals detained in Iran, including Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe. We have made clear to Iran that we expect them to ensure she is treated humanely and in line with international standards. We continue to request immediate consular access.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

baroness quin: To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent representationsthey have made about the continuing imprisonment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: ​The Foreign Secretary raised his concerns about dual national detentions with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif on 6 January. The Prime Minister raised his concerns with Iranian President Rouhani on 9 January. The Minister for the Middle East and North Africa called for their release in his call with Deputy Foreign Minister Araghchi on 12 January. We remain extremely concerned about the welfare of all British-Iranian dual nationals detained in Iran, including Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe. We have made clear to Iran that we expect them to ensure she is treated humanely and in line with international standards. We continue to request immediate consular access.

Northern Ireland Office

Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland

lord empey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the performance of the Electoral Office of Northern Ireland during the 2019 General Election.

lord empey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they intend to take following the claims by a whistle-blower of the inefficiency of the Electoral Office of Northern Ireland during the 2019 General Election.

lord duncan of springbank: The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has not made any assessment of the performance of the Electoral Office of Northern Ireland during the 2019 General Election. The Chief Electoral Officer is carrying out a post election review which will include an internal investigation into the allegations made concerning inefficiency. The Secretary of State has asked her to report the findings of that review to him as soon as possible. The Secretary of State has the power to commission further enquiries into these matters if he were to decide such enquiries are necessary following the Chief Electoral Officer’s investigations.

Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland: Finance

lord empey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the budget of the Electoral Office of Northern Ireland for the last three years for which figures are available.

lord duncan of springbank: Budget figures for the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland (EONI) are available as follows: Expenditure periodResource BudgetCapital Budget2016-17£2.331m£0.288m2017-18£1.825m£0.355m2018-19£2.045m£0.062m In addition to EONI budget funding, the costs of Parliamentary and European Parliamentary elections are met from the consolidated fund. Assembly elections are paid for from the Northern Ireland block grant and local councils pay for the administration of local district council elections.

Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry

lord lexden: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Duncan of Springbank on 31 October 2019 (HL Deb, cols 1019), when the report of the Northern Ireland Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry will be published.

lord duncan of springbank: In December 2018, Sir Patrick Coghlin Chair of the independent inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme issued the following statement: “I recognise that there will be considerable public interest in this issue. I’m afraid it’s simply not possible to give a date by which the Inquiry report will be published. What we can say is that the report will be published as soon as reasonably possible and that the public can be assured that the Inquiry will work assiduously to ensure that is the case.” As the inquiry was established by the previous Executive and is being supported by the Department of Finance, my Noble Friend should direct further queries about the inquiry to the NI Minister of that Department.

Organised Crime: Northern Ireland

lord lexden: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the capacity of the Ulster Defence Association and other loyalist gangs to commit crimes in Northern Ireland.

lord duncan of springbank: The Ulster Defence Association and other loyalist groupings remain proscribed under Schedule 2 of the Terrorism Act 2000.  The Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland recently confirmed that the Assessment of Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland, published in October 2015, remains current. You may wish to refer to the assessment in conjunction with the Second Report of the Independent Reporting Commission, published in November 2019, for an up to date assessment of the capacity of the Ulster Defence Association and other loyalist groupings in Northern Ireland. The Independent Reporting Commission was established to monitor the progress of the Northern Ireland Executive’s programme of work to end paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland. For your convenience, links to both of these reports are provided below: Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland - 19 October 2015https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/469548/Paramilitary_Groups_in_Northern_Ireland_-_20_Oct_2015.pdf Second Report of the Independent Reporting Commission - 4 November 2019https://www.ircommission.org/sites/irc/files/media-files/IRC%20-%202nd%20Report%202019_0.pdf

Treasury

Quality Assurance of Government Models Review

lord macpherson of earl's court: To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made towards implementing the recommendations of the review of quality assurance of government models, published on 5 March 2013.

the earl of courtown: The recommendations of the 2013 review of quality assurance of government models continue to be used to drive best practice in this area across government. Individual government departments are primarily responsible for implementing the recommendations of the review. As an example of the type of action being taken in departments, HM Treasury has a working group of senior analysts (“Strength in Numbers”) responsible for promoting and embedding best practice in modelling and quality assurance, adhering closely to the recommendations set out in the 2013 review. To further ensure high standards, the Government Internal Audit Agency conducts an audit of HMT business-critical models every twelve months. Findings and responses to these feed into the HMT Audit Risk Committee, which support the Permanent Secretary in managing risk, control and governance. Some recommendations are also being addressed on a cross-government basis. Specifically, in response to Recommendation 7 an expert inter-departmental working group was established. In 2015 this working group produced The Aqua Book: guidance on producing quality analysis for government, which is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-aqua-book-guidance-on-producing-quality-analysis-for-government. The Working Group has continued to meet approximately monthly with representatives from a number of Departments and Bodies to discuss quality assurance matters, publish quality assurance resources and provide informal advice to members. A number of resources created by Departments in response to the recommendations of the Review have been made available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/aqua-book-resources. These include guidance and research that underpin and complement the Aqua book, QA checklists and templates and other relevant materials and approaches currently used by Departments including the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and the Department for Transport. Further, the Office for National Statistics has recently established a Modelling Best Practice Unit within its Quality Centre, with the aim of supporting quality assurance in the modelling area across Government; officials from this Centre are members of the previously mentioned Working Group.

National Savings and Investments: Cheques

lord tebbit: To ask Her Majesty's Government on what grounds, and on whose authority, the National Savings and Investments Agency makes a decision to dishonour a cheque.

the earl of courtown: National Savings and Investments (NS&I) comply with the law relating to cheques. There are several circumstances in which NS&I would reject a cheque. These include the cheque being unsigned by the customer, out of date, or defaced. The Director of Savings, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of NS&I, is the authority responsible for administering this policy. Premium Bond prize warrants are legally similar to cheques. As with cheques, they can be rejected if a duplicate has been issued. Due to an administrative error, a number of duplicate Premium Bond prize warrants were issued to customers in the October 2019 prize draw. NS&I have since updated their processes to prevent this error occurring in future prize draws.